The Passion of St John the Baptist We have a lovely mosaic in our parish church of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus. Not long afterwards, both of them would be put to death by the power of Rome. Jesus was crucified at the orders of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor in Judea, and John the Baptist was beheaded on the orders of Herod Antipas who ruled Galilee on behalf of Rome. Jesus more than likely saw his own destiny revealed in what happened to John. John was executed because he had challenged Herod for acting against the Jewish Law by marrying his brother Philip’s wife. John was a courageous witness to God’s will for our lives. In the story we have just heard, he stands out as a beacon of light against the darkness of the other characters, that unholy trinity of Herod, Herodias his wife, and her daughter. Between them they managed to eliminate what the gospel reading refers to as a ‘good and holy man’, just as Jesus, the ultimate ‘good and holy man’, would be eliminated by another coalition of darkness. It seems to be in the nature of light that it often finds itself shining in darkness. The light of the Lord’s presence shines in our own darkness, in the dark and difficulty experiences of life. Jesus spoke of John as a ‘burning and shining lamp’. John the Baptist is a great inspiration to us to allow the light of our faith to shine, the light of the gospel, even when it is not popular or convenient to do so. Our calling is to allow the light we have received in baptism to shine brightly, in season and out of season. In his first encyclical, ‘Light of Faith’, Pope Francis declares, ‘there is an urgent need to see once again that faith is a light, for once the flame of faith dies out, all other lights begin to dim. A light this powerful cannot come from ourselves but from a more primordial source: in a word, it must come from God’.
Posted on: Thu, 29 Aug 2013 07:27:43 +0000
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